In copending patent application Ser. No. 641,179, filed Aug. 15, 1986, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 224,742, filed Jan. 13, 1981, now abandoned, by Paul B. Beckwith Jr. entitled "Digital Map Generator and Display System", assigned to the Assignee of the present application, there is described a system for effecting the dynamic display of terrain data, which is compressed and stored in digital form and which may be selectively and controllably accessed from memory and viewed on a cockpit cathode ray tube display in the form of a moving map of the terrain over which the aircraft is flying, offering the pilot an advanced navigational tool not previously provided by conventional terrain mapping schemes. In accordance with this improved system, both elevation and cultural information may be displayed to assist the pilot in navigating and controlling the aircraft.
Advantageously, this information may be displayed to the pilot not only in the form of a moving map, as is carried out in the system described in the above-referenced '742 application but, through the use of prescribed signal processing and display control circuitry, the stored terrain data may be used to present to the pilot/observer a perspective view of the terrain beneath and ahead of the aircraft's flight path. Two systems for accomplishing this task are described in copending patent application Ser. No. 517,037 filed July 25, 1983 by Paul B. Beckwith Jr. et al, entitled "Real Time Perspective Display Employing Digital Map Generator" and copending patent application Ser. No. 308,166 filed Oct. 2, 1981, by Paul B. Beckwith Jr. et al entitled "Real Time Video Perspective Digital Map Display", now U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,389, issued Dec. 18, 1984, respectively, each application being assigned to the Assignee of the present application.
Now, while the above-mentioned terrain display (moving map and perspective) systems are significantly advanced expedients for assisting the pilot in the navigation and control of the flight of the aircraft, they are not all inclusive of the types of guidance information display systems with which the cockpit may be fitted. One commonly employed navigation display device is the radar display, through which the pilot is provided range and bearing information of aspects of the terrain lying beneath and ahead of the aircraft based upon radar return signals processed by on board radar equipment, such as microwave transmission and reception devices and FLIR (forward looking infrared radar) systems. In accordance with the operation of such equipment, as a transmit/return beam, having prescribed beam pattern and energy characteristics, is scanned ahead of and beneath the aircraft, a corresponding monochromatic sweep over a prescribed field of view is scanned on the face of a cockpit CRT and reflectance returns are imaged on the pilot's screen as the sweep translates their location (bearing) relative to the aircraft.